Hi. I was told I might get some help here with a mapping issue I have (Quake 1). I've just started and I'm using QuArK. I tried to make a small single player map, but I'm only at one room and a short corridor and I already have two problems. One is a leak I can't find no matter how hard I look, which I "fixed" by encasing the entire map in a giant box for now, but the other is something I don't even understand.

For some reason the wall at the end of the corridor looks like a weird hall of mirrors unless I'm hugging it, in which case, some of the other walls look like that. This only happens if I compile the map with lights and vis. If I do it without, it looks like ass, but it'll look like textured ass at least. Here's the map, could someone take a look at it for me and tell me what I did wrong and how I could fix it?
http://www.sendspace.com/file/9c3m3i 

A common issue with Quark is its habit of using float coordinates which often results in tiny leak or portal errors (the HOM). I'm not familiar with the editor unlike some other people here, but there should be an option to turn it off and/or to snap all brushes the integer grid.

If you get a leak, QBSP will create a .pts files. Put it in id1/maps along with your .bsp, load the map and type "pointfile" in the console. There will be a dotted line that'll help you determine where the leak is (search for the spot where it goes outside).

You'll also want to use the compiling tools from here (qbsp, light and vis) - the ones that come with Quark are probably outdated. 

I didn't realise Chthon would be quite such a big deal :E nm using him with conventional weapons is fine, or I can fake it by just giving him a squillion health. Shame he auto-spawns at the start really :)

Would love to get the hack Preach mentions about targetting monsters to attack each other, but doesn't seem to want to play ball :E 

In order to solve your HOM issue, you need to read this: http://user.tninet.se/~xir870k/tooltips.txt 

I would recommend rtying another editor. If Worldcraft 3.3 works on your rig, you would probably be sorted. Then theres BSP editor which is meant to be quite current. And some people have good look with Radiant. 

What are you trying to do anyway? I thought by conventional you meant the lightning method.
The hacked shootable Chthon needs to spawn on map start, yeah. You can delay it by giving him a higher nextthink value, but that's not really helping. However, you can do it like I did in my Chthon map and simply have him spawn in a remote room. Then teleport him into place when the player reaches the area. 

Just playing around with monsters and decided to try making something cool using Chthon, but I couldn't get him to die the iD way.
By conventional I meant using conventional player damage :)

Having a little play using chthon like a large normally enemy like the lava giants in Serious Sam :) 

all id maps have their sources released, look at the e1m7 source to see how the entities are set up. (i think they are on quaddicted, or maybe quaketastic, or at least rome.ro) 

I've downloaded Worldcraft and BSP, but I haven't been able to do anything but create rectangular brushes in either so far. I can't figure out the controls. 

OK, well I had a peek at Youtube and found this video showing how to make really simple geometry in Hammer (which is almost identical to WC3.3 which I use) and it does show the clipping tool and the vertex manipulation tool, as well as how to hollow a cube (which i tend not to do)

For geometry all you really need is the clip tool and the vertex tool, as well as knowing how to use the brush tool (to make a solid brush). The great thing about Worldcraft is that in version 3.3 the texture lock will work properly if you enable it, which can really save time. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iFe6gb_DMs 

Oh god, that guy rambles so much. But it was informative when he finally got around to explaining things. I guess it makes sense. In QuArK, all that stuff is done by simply clicking with the mouse, so I was confused when it needed separate modes in Worldcraft. 

Oh god, that guy rambles so much

the main reason i wish video tutorials would die in a fire. :\

most of the people who do them know what they are doing but they usually have annoying voices or can't seem to string more than 3 words together without saying 'um' or somesuch, or their mics suck or all kinds of things that make them irritating.
i remember having to put up with tons of that when learning D3. 

by clicking the buttons in the toolbar (i.e. the ertex button, the clipping button), rather than learning the key combos. I click the buttons ;)

And yeah, the guy rambles, I just picked the vid from random really, just wanted to find one which explained the vertex and clipping tools :) 

At the qadapter page. http://quakeone.com/qadapter 

there is a great tutorial about WC included with the program. Just klick help or so. 

Then teleport him into place when the player reaches the area.

Actually that is something I don't know how to do, trigger teleporters like that. 

You just place him (or any other monster for that matter) inside a regular trigger_teleport and have a trigger_once or any other entity target it to set it off. 

Teleporters start off if given a targetname. 

Tie it to the entity "trigger_teleport".
Position your monster inside the trigger_teleport.
Give the trigger_teleport a key "target" with the value "yourNastyAmbush"
Give it another key "targetname" with the value "triggerYourNastyAmbush"
Make a trigger_once trigger and put it where you want the player to be when the monster appears.
Give the trigger_once a key "target" with the value "triggerYourNastyAmbush"
Put an entity "info_teleport_destination" where you want the monster to appear, and give it the key "targetname" with the value "yourNastyAmbush".

So now when the player touches the trigger_once, it will fire and trigger the tigger_teleport to send the monster to the info_teleport_destination.

Nne of these entities will be visible in game, except for the monster!

This is the way it is done using original ID progs. If using Quoth you can just give a monster the flag "spawned", and when triggered (when a trigger_once has a key "target" with a value equal to the monster's key "targetname") the monster will appear.

If you noclip outside some of the original Quake maps from id you will notice that there are dark rooms outside the map, and if you go in them you will find they are full of monsters waiting to be teleported into the map. 

I thought spawn rooms were used slightly different, didn't know teleporters could be targetted like that.

I'm just being dumb again, okay. I should have done more with regular progs :) 

So yeah, I figured out how to use it, but I can't compile my map with it. What do I need to do to? 

That was me, I had a brainfart, sorry. 

Run your qbsp, vis and light from a command prompt.

Make dir on c: called "mymap"

Save your .map file there

Put all your tools (TxQbsp.exe, WVis,exe and Light.exe) in the dir.

Load a command prompt (in windows click start, then type in the "run" or "search" bar:

cmd

Press enter.

Command Prompt appears! :)


type:

cd c:\mymap

then type:

txqbsp yourMapName

then type (eg):

vis -fast yourMapName

then type (eg):

light -extra4 yourMapName

Your compiled map would now be in the c:\mymap\ DIR. 

TxQbsp:

http://quaddicted.com/tools/txqbspbjp.zip

WVis:

http://quaddicted.com/tools/WVis.zip

Light (Bengt Yardrup version, modified by MH):

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/tools/windows/BengtLightColouredR2.zip